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Source, timing and dynamics of ionic species mobility in the Svalbard annual snowpack
- Source :
- Science of The Total Environment
- Publication Year :
- 2021
-
Abstract
- Nearly all ice core archives from the Arctic and middle latitudes (such as the Alps), apart from some very high elevation sites in Greenland and the North Pacific, are strongly influenced by melting processes. The increases in the average Arctic temperature has enhanced surface snow melting even of higher elevation ice caps, especially on the Svalbard Archipelago. The increase of the frequency and altitude of winter “rain on snow” events as well as the increase of the length of the melting season have had a direct impact on the chemical composition of the seasonal and permanent snow layers due to different migration processes of water-soluble species, such as inorganic ions. This re-allocation along the snowpack of ionic species could significantly modify the original chemical signal present in the annual snow. This paper aims to give a picture of the evolution of the seasonal snow strata with a daily time resolution to better understand: a) the processes that can influence deposition b) the distribution of ions in annual snow c) the impact of the presence of liquid water on chemical re-distribution within the annual snow pack. Specifically, the chemical composition of the first 100 cm of seasonal snow on the Austre Broggerbreen Glacier (Spitsbergen, Svalbard Islands, Norway) was monitored daily from the 27th of March to the 31st of May 2015. The experimental period covered almost the entire Arctic spring until the melting season. This unique dataset gives us a daily picture of the snow pack composition, and helps us to understand the behaviour of cations (K+, Ca2+, Na+, Mg2+) and anions (Br−, I−, SO42−, NO3−, Cl−, MSA) in the Svalbard snow pack. We demonstrate that biologically related depositions occur only at the end of the snow season and that rain and melting events have different impacts on the snowpack chemistry.
- Subjects :
- Arctic
Depostion
Dynamics
Ions
Melting
Snowpack
Sources
Svalbard
Environmental Engineering
010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences
010501 environmental sciences
Atmospheric sciences
01 natural sciences
Altitude
Ice core
Environmental Chemistry
Settore CHIM/01 - Chimica Analitica
Waste Management and Disposal
Chemical composition
0105 earth and related environmental sciences
geography
geography.geographical_feature_category
Glacier
Snow
Pollution
Middle latitudes
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Science of The Total Environment
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....844b961a73a4008e48db085d41cf3530